She's a Thirsty Girl

I love it when things just work right. Like these intercooler brackets - there were already two threaded holes on each side of the frame, so all I had to do was enlarge the holes on the brackets for the bolts! So sweet. Like most things with this swap, things are a bit cramped/tight, but there's still room for everything.

With some ingenuity, I was able to use the stock 3.0 V6 airbox. This way, it fits right in the car, and actually accepts the 2.7t MAF perfectly. Here I plugged up the Secondary Air return port with some JB weld putty. I pressed in the middle from both sides to get a good seal. Now it's air tight.

I picked up a 3" dia. x 4" long piece of hose to complete the intake plumbing. I was able to get a good enough seal between the coupler and the plastic accordion hose without any adhesives/sealants. The air filter from the junkyard was even super clean, so I just threw it in for now. The snorkel fits and works with this setup just fine. I'm really glad I was able to make the OEM style airbox work, since they actually are engineered very well, and do a great job letting the engine breathe.

Gutted the 1.8t harness for a few connectors... specifically a two pin for the A/C compressor.

Looks so much better "whole" in my opinion. Getting excited for the first drive!

As you can see, I had to resort to using a 4"x4" block of wood as my hood strut decided to stop working today of all days....
Radiator and condenser fitted. I had to notch out the bottom area of the radiator support where the intercooler cross-over pipe goes. That's ok since I never plan on using that again anyway. Since the 2.7t rad is both thicker and taller, the fitment leaves a little to be desired for my taste. However, overall everything else fits together pretty well.

Had to make a run to the dealer for some more coolant - drank about 2 full gallons in the end. With the coolant all full and the power steering filled and bled, it was time for a drive!!!

Nardo Avant Lives Again!

The fuel system was something that could be done kind of whenever. Basically the Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR) on the 1.8t (longitudinal specific) in integrated in the fuel filter, where as the 2.7t has a simple fuel filter and a Fuel Pressure Regulator right on the fuel rail.




I ran a return line (that I grabbed from a B6 3.0) from the fuel rail and hooked it up to the line that feeds directly back into the fuel tank. Not super fancy, but it should hold just fine.


Got some snow. It's been a dry winter.



After a few tries starting with no spark, I was able to narrow down the issue to a wire not going where it needed to, resulting in the ECU not triggering the ignition coils. Once the wiring was correct, the engine eagerly came to life!

First run video: 

Like A Glove

I picked up all the bell housing bolts. The ones from ECS even came earlier than expected (facepalm). I went through all the bolts and measured them so I knew what was what. Nothing like Genuine parts.


Speaking of Genuine parts, I decided to treat the new motor with some nice genuine Porsche oil and coolant caps. Totally worth it. It's the little things.

New coolant reservoir to replace the old grey one.



Got the flywheel all torqued down after double checking that it can only go on one way. Some of the eight holes have a slightly different spacing, so they only line up perfectly in one orientation. This is for the engine speed/crank position sensor that makes it run. Note the wrench trick for torquing the suckers down.

One last good look at that RS4 clutch. Can't wait to see how it feels.

All buttoned and aligned. Love it when the kit comes with the alignment tool. So much easier.

After some cleaning, the old 01A 5 speed looked alright. Greased the pivot ball and shaft, and installed the new throwout bearing.

 After I got the bolts I was able to mate the trans to the engine. Took a bit of finangling, but overall wasn't too bad. And in she went. It was very slow and steady for quite a while putting all of it in. The clearance on either frame rail is maybe just enough to slide your hand in. I was unsure about the "position" of motor mounts (which holes in the mount brackets), but after some trial and error, decided how it had to be, and it actually fit just barely. It probably would have been a little easier to secure the mounts to the engine first, and then drop it all in the car. The bottom nuts are easier to get to, too.

 Next order of business: fit intercoolers, piping, intake, etc.

Nardo Grey Avant's last day as a 1.8T

So... the wiring jumper harness is done. This means the engines can now start dancing around. I will have to connect a couple of wires to certain places, but I'm sure it'll be fine. These are the body harness connectors that live in the same box as the ECU.
The (gauge) cluster in the car gets various bits of information from the sensors on the car through some of these connectors, such as RPMs, coolant temperature, oil pressure - some important stuff. Essentially this harness will allow my car to function normally and get all of the information it needs to run correctly even though the ECU is from a B5 and not everything is where it would expect it to be.

I didn't wake up today with the plan to tear the 1.8T out, but that's kind of the direction things went. Felt good though. So much tangible progress.

 Front clip removed, started removing things: airbox, intercooler and piping, all fluids drained - oil, coolant, power steering.

It's final moments...

Disconnected ECU and rest of main wiring, and put it in a grocery bag so they weren't dangling all over. Also went about removing CV axles, undoing the trans mount, driveshaft, A/C compressor.


Disconnected exhaust, fuel lines, slave cylinder, motor mounts, removed catalytic converter, and hooked up the engine hoist. And out she comes.

It really looks like a gaping hole when there's nothing in there. The ease of access to those areas is unbelievable though!

After carefully removing the bell-housing bolts, and saddling the tranny, it came loose with some gentle rocking. The pressure plate and flywheel now exposed, I set to work to remove them in order to mount the engine on the stand. The pilot bearing (pressed into the crankshaft in this particular application - it will be pressed into the flywheel with the 2.7T) was not in good shape. In fact, it dawned on me that it must be the cause for a rather shrill noise every so often when letting the clutch out in 1st gear. The little roller pins inside the bearing were completely separated, and had been floating around the space between the input shaft and crankshaft. Glad to be rid of that problem. Moral of the story is always replace the pilot bearing. This clutch job was only 10k miles old, half of which was pure freeway cruising.

Of course I couldn't resist some cleaning of the sub-frame, hehe.

I am currently waiting on new bell-housing bolts (the automatic ones are not the same as the ones for a manual application). I ordered them from ECS Tuning since I was ordering a coolant reservoir anyway and they were about the same as the dealer pricing. Well, shipping is looking like it will take about a week and a half, which is utterly ridiculous.

Today I went down to the local VW dealer and had them run the P/N's for the bolts. I'll pick them up on Monday, and return the bolts from ECS when they get here clear on Thursday. If I had ordered from the dealer on Monday (today is Wednesday), then I would have gotten them on Tuesday. Receiving them this coming Monday is due to Thanksgiving holiday.

Making O2 Sensors

Today I decided to put the front clip back on the S4 finally, and I stole the radiator. Originally I had planned to use a radiator from a B6 3.0L since it would fit in the same space as my current one, but the one on the car I pulled everything else off of had a big crack on one of the end tanks. I also plugged the trans cooler ports on the B5 S4 one.
I figured I would work on my O2 sensors. One was diagnosed as bad, and I went ahead and ordered two new Bosch "universal" sensors. Basically you splice them to your factory connectors. This saves you a chuck of $$ for each sensor. It was pretty easy honestly.



Cleaned turbo inlet pipe brackets and re-mounted them. I love it when they shine. I also spoke with the gentleman that's working on my wiring harness adapter, and it should be done shortly. Then the real fun will begin.

Parts Hoarding! Shiny!

Today my friend Chris came over to swap N75 valves (in order to help diagnose his sporadic boost) with the Avant. We also reoriented an exhaust clamp that was rubbing on the trans brace. He also helped me push the s4 in under the tent, and we started installing the turbos.
I realized I wanted to replace the exhaust manifold gaskets, so the turbos got put on hold for a minute while I removed, cleaned, and reinstalled with new gaskets and hardware. Passenger turbo is all in, just need to torque the 3 manifold to turbo bolts. Driver turbo is all in except for those same 3 bolts and one coolant banjo bolt.
Old vs. new

I later got the manifolds all buttoned up and then the turbos both on with all new crush washers and oil return line gaskets, and clamps for the wastegate lines.
Downpipes came!
A quick mock-up
Decided to cut them and hold off on extending them until I see how they fit in the car
OE LUK RS4 clutch came!
And my billet steel flywheel from TTV Racing came all the way from the UK. It’s gorgeous.
I also picked up a ton of parts at the junkyard: B6 3.0 exhaust (chopped up a bit to fit in the car), an A/C line, fuel return line, mk4 sun visor for the wife, mk3 glove box for a friend, wood trim coin tray for my car, and wiring harness from a 2.7t, as well as wiring from a B6 which I dropped off to get made into a jumper harness to make the 2.7t ecu work in the B6.

Turbos & Valve Covers

Picked up some good replacement k03 turbos since my fins are chewed up. They have almost no shaft play so I’ll just throw them on. They’ll clean up nicely.

Old valve cover gaskets had TONS of silicone (facepalm). I fixed that. I love the smell of fresh gaskets.

I got the auto-tragic trans back in the donor along with the subframe that had to be dropped. My friend also grabbed the front brakes for his B6 😎.


Some 30v action. (5 valves per cylinder glory)

Cleaned, prepped, and painted driver side VC today, and cured it in the oven! Passenger is removed and cleaned, but it was too cold tonight to paint it. Also gapped sparkplugs to .028” and installed all six. I decided I liked the blue enough to keep it after testing on something else.

Tonight I painted and baked the passenger side valve cover. Hopefully the difference in temperature and dry time don’t affect the color match/quality too much. The old turbos are also removed, and the lines on both sides have been cleaned.

Oh and I pulled the power steering line I need from the donor and put the front wheels back on the B5 and put the whole thing down (off the jackstands).

Coming out!

I was planning on just removing the motor and separating it from the trans at the same time, but space proved to be an issue. So I unhooked everything from the trans, too. Cv axles, driveshaft, trans mounts, and subframe all came off. I couldn’t get the exhaust from the cats back separated for the life of me (thanks Colorado) so I pulled the whole exhaust out with the engine and trans.

Once out, I was able to get the rear section of the exhaust off, and start working on the downpipes, since they hug the trans so well and needed to come off first. Then I shimmied the trans off, and found some long enough bolts for the stand.

Engine is on the stand and in the shed. It’s getting cam chain tensioner gaskets, cam plugs, valve cover gaskets, and spark plugs and cleaning what I can of the block and various parts that get removed.